Picture-displaying apparatus.



H. W. GREEN.

PICTURE DISPLAYING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 10. m5.

1 ,284,65 6 Patented Nov. 12, 1918.

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IB @A I ET I F'J i 34L 11 r 5 W a z1 I 15 L I H. W. GREEN.

' PICTURE DISELAYINGfiPPARATUS.

APPLICATION man MAYIO.19I5;

Patented Nov. 12, 1918 H. W. GREEN.

PICTURE DISPLAYING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 10, 1915.

Patented Nov. 12, 1918.

4 SHEETSSHEET 3 H. W. GREEN.

PICTURE DISPLAYING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 10. I915.

Patented Nov. 12, 1918;

4 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

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HENRY WILLIAM GREEN, 0]? LONDON, ENGLAND.

PICTURE-DISPLAYING APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 12, 1918.

Application filed May 10, 1915. Serial No. 27,099.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY WILLIAM GREEN, a subject of the King of Great Britain, and resident of London, England, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Picture-Displaying Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a new or improved picture displaying apparatus particularly applicable to advertising purposes and has reference to apparatus of that general type wherein a number of separate and distinct pictures are carried by rollers at each end of the machine and mechanism is provided whereby as one picture is unwound from a storage roller at one end of the machine and brought into display position another picture is being wound on to a storage roller at the other end of the machine and thus removed from its display position.

This type of apparatus is very attractive in that the matter to be displayed gradually grows into view and remains stationary while the matter to be removed from the display position is gradually absorbed as it were. The general efiect is as though the one picture is being wiped away and the fresh one painted in its place. Now this effect becomes enhanced as the gap separating the appearing and receding picture is diminished and becomes correspondingly less marked as this gap increases.

The object of my present invention is to provide a machine of this general character with a very much enhanced effect and the primary feature of the invention consists in a construction and arrangement whereby the gap between the appearing and disappearing pictures is diminished. The primary feature of this construction and arrangement consists in providing traveling rods or thin rollers over which the picture bands pass from their storage rollers, one end of each picture band being connected to its storage roller and the other end anchored tothe drum or frame in which the storage roller is Thus instead of the storage rollers themselves traveling up and down and having to be hidden from view by a wide front strip, the traveling rods or these rollers travel up and down and these can be hidden by a very narrow strip. In fact it has been found that a strip threeeighths of an inch wide is suflicient even where pictures of large size are displayed.

The arrangement of'the mechanism is such that during a change of pictures, one picture gradually appears in the place formerly occupied by a corresponding portion of the other picture but no movement of either picture relative to the frame of the machine appears to take place. Thisproduces a novel and beautiful effect and constitutes an important feature of my invention.

In the accompanying drawings I have illustrated one practical embodiment of my invention and in the machine shown a plurality of storage rollers is located at either end of the machine and separate rods operate successfullv firstly to draw ea. h picture into position for display and secondly to return it after display to its storage roller.

Figure l of the drawings is a front elevational view of the machine. The picture front which normally surrounds the picture opening has been removed to show the internal mechanism and certain portions are broken away.

Fig. 2 is a side elevational view partly in section, the section being taken mainly on line A of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2 but the section is taken mainly on line B-B of Fig. l and the machine is shown at a different stage in its cycle of operations, while Fig. 4: illustrates a form of construction wherein slightly modified means are employed for unwinding the picture bands.

Referring to these drawings, the numeral 1 designates the machine casing, in which are journaled the spindles 2 of which each carries a pair of disks 3. Between each pair of disks are mounted a plurality of spring rollers at which act as storage rollers for the pictures so that each pair of disks with its attached spindle forms a species of magazine in which a number of picture rollers are stored.

One end of each picture sheet or web 5 is attached to its spring roller el while the other end is attached to a rod 6 mounted between the disks 3. A second rod 7 passes beneath the web and its ends normally rest in recesses 8 in the disks 3. Each rod 7 is normally held in its recess by the tension on its associated web 5 and the webs are kept taut by the springs 9 housed within and operating upon the rollers at in the usual manner.

In the operation of the machine each. of the rods 7 is successively picked up by the carrier fittings 10 which reciprocate between the picture magazines and as one picture is brought into the display position the pre ceding picture is returned to its roller. hen the latter picture is fully wound up, the magazine on which it is situated is turned so as to bring the next following picture into position so that its rods 7 ma be picked up by the carriers 10. These carriers are provided with suitably recessed lugs 11 between which the two rods 7 of the displayed pictures rest parallel as is clearly shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

The carriers 10 are mounted on carriages 12 which slide upon the guide rods 13 and 14. Endless chains 15 mounted on chain wheels 16 are located on either side of the machine in the positions shown and between two corresponding links in these chains passes a transversely disposed bar 17 which also passes through slots 18 in the carriages 12. Motion is imparted from a rotating main shaft 19 to the chains 15 through the duplicate gearing 20 and it will be seen that as the chains 15 travel around on the chain wheel 16 the bar 17, cooperating with the slots 18 causes the carriages 12 to reciprocate, and with them the carriers 10.

Fast upon each of the spindles 2 and in fixed relation to the disks 3 is a disk 21 provided with projecting pins 22 by means of which it and the attached magazine may be rotated for the purpose above specified. The rotation is effected by means of pawls 23 pivoted to spring controlled levers 2% which levers are operated in opposition to their springs 25 by means of suitably disposed projections 26 on the chains 15. The upper pawl 23 is held up to its work by means of a spring 27; the lower one may be a gravity pawl.

As soon as a picture has been rolled up on one of the magazines one of the projections 26 makes contact with the corresponding lever 2% and, turning it about its pivot 28 causes it to draw or push over its attached pawl 23 and rotate the magazine. This done. the projection rides over the nose 29 of the lever. which then returns under the influence of its spring 25. Guide rails 30 are provided on the casing 1 and upon these ails the projections 26 rest when traveling along the top or bottom lays of the chains. These guide rails are found necessary to prevent buckling of the chains due to the unbalanced tension on one picture web while the other picture is being changed.

Pivoted plates 31 are normally held in contact with the pins 22. by means of springs 32 and in the manner shown. These plates serve to lock the magazine in fixed positions when they are not being rotated. It will be understood that any well known ratchet and pawl or other escape mechanism may be employed to rotate the magazines and lock them when not being rotated.

In order to hide the gap 33 between the pictures while a change of picture is being effected, I mount upon the carrier fittings 10 a lath 34. This lath is free to slide in relation to the fittings by reason of slots 35 at its extremities through which slots pass the screws 36 which secure it to the said fittings. At either end the lath is normally held in position covering the gap 33 by means of arms 37 pivoted at 33 to the carriages 12 and drawn together by springs 39. The lath is provided at its extremities with projecting lugs 4C0 which come into contact with corresponding projections $1 on the casing shortly before the carriers 10 reach their upper or their lower limit of travel. This condition is shown in Fig. 3 and the object of the arrangement is to prevent the lath from fouling the rotating magazine; when the said lath is so arrested and the carrier travels on to permit the disengagement of one picture rod 7 and the engagement of the next, the corresponding pair of arms 37 is lifted, as shown, in opposition to the springs 39.

A picture frame front 12 furnished with a glazed window 43 is preferably provided.

in the modified arrangement shown in Fig. 1- the numeral it designates a picture magazine which carries a plurality of spring rollers 45 upon which picture bands 46 are wound as in the foregoing example. One end of each picture band is attached to its corresponding roller and the other end to an anchor rod 47. the several rods 47 being normally held in recesses 48 in the periphery of the picture magazine, by reason of tension on their associated picture bands.

According to this arrangen'ient the. rollers 49 which draw the picture hands into clutching position are carried upon duplicate pairs of traveling jaws 50 and 51 and one roller serves for all the bands in one magazine. These jaws 50 and 51 slide upon independent slide bars 52 and 53 and each pair is actuated by driving chains 54 in a manner somewhat similar to that described in relation to Figs. 1-3. In practice each jaw is provided with a cam slot 55 of which the main portion conforms in curvature to the chain wheels 56 while the extremities are straight and set in a direction at right angles to the lay of the driving chains. It will also be observed that the curvature of the two slots in each pair of jaws isopposed and that the slots are both engaged by a pin or roller 57 carried by the driving chain 54. The result of this arrangement is that when the jaws are traveling between the picture magazines the jaws are closed together and the driving pins lie in the straight extremities of the cam slots 55, but as they approach the limit of their travel the pin rides into the curved portions of the cam slots and separates the jaws as shown in the figure.

Simultaneously with the opening of the jaws the picture band which has just been exhibited is returned to the magazine 44 and the latter is rotated in any suitable mannersuch as that hereinbefore describedso as to bring the next band into position to be drawn out for exhibition. As soon as the magazine is locked in position, the jaws. and 51 commence to close, in other words, the jaw 50 descends upon the jaw 51 by reason of the action of the pins 57 and cam slots 55. Now in its ascent the jaw 50 has met and lifted a pin 58 carried on one extremity of a bell crank lever 59 pivoted at 60 to the machine casing. The other end of this bell crank lever is coupled by a link 61 to a lever 62 pivoted at 63 to the casing and provided at its, free extremity with a hook-like device 64. Hook levers such as 62 are provided in duplicate at each end of the machine and the hoops are adapted successiveh to engage the extremities of the anchor rods 47 and to lift said rods away from the periphery of the magazine. In the figure the hook levers are shown retracted against the influence of a spring 65 acting on the bell crank lever 59 but as soon as the jaws 50 and 51 commence to move in the direction of the remote magazine the hooks 64 advance to pick up the rods 47 and move them to a position 47 thereby extending the picture band across the path of the roller 49 by which it is to be drawn into the exhibiting position. In the figure the numeral 49 indicates the position of a roller 49 just as it has descended upon the extended picture band and immediately before it has commenced to draw said band into display position.

It will be understood that as the jaws 50 and 51 travel downward the upper one of the traveling rods 49 operates to draw the picture band into display position in exactly similar fashion to that in which the rods 7 of the example illustrated in Figs. 1-3 operate. That is to say, the picture band is attached at one end to the storage roller 45 and at the other end is anchored by the engagement of the anchor rods 47 in the hook like devices 64. Similarly when the jaws 50 and 51 travel upwardly the lower one of the traveling rods operates to draw the picture into display position. 7

It will be understood that any convenient form of stop such as 66 may be provided to limit the forward movement of the hook levers 62. Furthermore the picture bands may and preferably do pass over fixed bars such as 67 of which the inner edges 68 protrude slightly between the pair of jaws and constrain the exhibited bands to liev in a plane substantially parallel to the front of the machine.

It will be understood that my invention is susceptible of various modifications within the scope of the claims.

\Vhat I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A picture display apparatus comprising storage rollers located at each end of the machine, picture bands wound upon the storage rollers, rotatable disks forming magazines, in the peripheries of which disks the storage rollers are rotatably supported, traveling devices, means for moving said traveling device up and down the displaying frontof the machine, means for disengaging a picture from the traveling device when it has been wound out of display position, means controlled by said first named means for rotating the storage roller magazines to bring the successive picture into operative positiOn, and means for engaging the traveling device with the successive picture.

2. A picture displaying apparatus comprising spring controlled storage rollers located at each end of the machine, movable anchor rods, picture bands secured to and winding around said storage rollers and fastened to said anchor rods, rods slidable along the display front of the machine, means for shifting said anchor rods to bring their picture band in the path of said slidable rods, and means engaging the traveling rods, whereby the traveling of the rods up and down the front of the machine insures the gradual movement into display position of one picture, and the gradual removal from the display position of another picture.

3. A picture displaying apparatus comprising spring-controlled storage rollers at each end of the machine, movable anchor rods. picture bands secured at one end and winding around said storage rollers and fastened with the other end to said anchor rods. rods slidable along the display front of the machine, means for shifting said anchor rods and retaining the same in shifted position, whereby the picture band is in the path of said slidable rods, and means 4 memes engaging the traveling rods whereby the traveling of the rods up and clown the front of the machme insures the gradual move- In testimony whereof I affix my signature 1n presence of two -W1tnesses.

HENRY WILLIAM GREEN.

ment into display position of one picture Witnesses: and the gradual removal from the clispla O. J. WURTH, position of another picture. G. P. KENT.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Yatente. Washington, D. C. 

